Originally Posted by
gugie
A friend of mine invited me over to wax one of my chains. Based on the pros and cons of oil vs wax both here and on an email thread I started, in my mind it's a coin toss as to which would work better for me. I decided to take him up on it, took a dirty chain off of one of my bikes (I'm terrible when it comes to maintenance on my own bicycles) and see how it went. Between cleaning and waxing the chain it took maybe 2 hrs - but as my friend Ben said, it's not 2 hrs of work, most of the time is sitting and waiting, and subsequent rewaxing was maybe 20 minutes of his time.
If I'm not willing to try something new, I figure it's hard to argue that it's wrong. Well, hookers and blow come to mind...but I'm pretty sure this isn't on that level.
In all honesty, I’m not a fan of hot waxing nor complicated cleaning regimes. My chains are cleaned exactly
once…when I install it. I shake the new chain in mineral spirits in an old Gatorade bottle for about 30 seconds. After I let it dry (in the sun for about 10 minutes), I install it on the bike and use a White Lightning Clean Ride. That’s the last time that the chain gets cleaned or even taken off the bike. When the chain makes more noise than I can stand or if I happen to ride in the rain, I relube. Currently I’m tracking the lubrication interval but I’m early in my recording. I’ve gotten up to 700 miles on a lubrication cycle but my current chain went around 450 miles.
I do reuse my mineral spirits several times which does result in chain that is a little bit dirtier looking as the mineral spirits get used than the first wash but it doesn’t result in an overly dirty chain. I can still handle it without getting myself dirty like I did in the past when I used oil. The result is a bike and drivetrain that doesn’t need constant cleaning nor constant disassembly. Bottom line: it’s just easier.
I’ve used hot wax in the past and found it too bothersome. Not as bothersome as the constant cleaning with oil but more bother than I want to deal with. I’ve used oil…including Phil Wood Tenacious oil…and won’t go back.
As for wet weather performance, I’ve used White Lightning on tours throughout the US. I’ve used it in driving rainstorms and dry dusty conditions. I haven’t found it to perform poorly in the wet. Oil should be reapplied after rain as well since water will float the oil off. Wax doesn’t “wash off”. It’s much less water soluble than oil is but it also sticks to the metal better than oil does.
Finally, all the falderal of oil vs wax and the pearl clutching over a chain is mostly silly. It’s a chain. It will wear out. Chains are cheap. They really are not worth as much worry as we cyclists give it but, well, here we are.